1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to reproduction of audio-video (AV) data, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for continuously reproducing a plurality of pieces of discontinuous AV data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of audio-video (AV) data reproduction, an application that allows not only conventional sequential reproduction but also continuous reproduction of scenes selected by a user has been introduced.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional apparatus to reproduce AV data. Referring to FIG. 1, the apparatus includes a buffer 102 that buffers data read from an information storage medium 101 which stores an application allowing both sequential AV reproduction and reproduction of discontinuous scenes, a navigation manager 103 that controls reproduction of AV data including video data, audio data, and graphic data, interprets application-related data, and controls data reproduction, a graphic decoder 104 that decodes graphic data under control of the navigation manager 103, a video decoder 105 that decodes video data under control of the navigation manager 103, an audio decoder 106 that decodes audio data under control of the navigation manager 103, and an audio-video (AV) renderer 107 that includes a graphics plane 108 to output graphic data decoded by the graphic decoder 104 and a video plane 109 to output video data decoded by the video decoder 105.
In this conventional apparatus to reproduce AV data, the graphic data includes menu data to construct a menu and/or subtitle data to construct a subtitle. The graphics plane may include a plurality of planes to output decoded menu data and/or subtitle data, and may further include an On-Screen Display (OSC) plane to output menu data and/or subtitle data to an OSD screen supported by a reproducing apparatus.
FIG. 2 is a diagram comparing a normal sequential reproduction of scenes with a reproduction of selected scenes. Referring to FIG. 2, in the case of normal play 201, a reproducing apparatus reproduces AV data according to normally increasing output time information. Contrastingly, in the case 202 where a user selects and reproduces desired scenes, the reproducing apparatus continuously reproduces a plurality of pieces of discontinuous AV data in order to reproduce only the selected play items Scene #1, Scene #2, Scene #5, Scene #7, and Scene #9.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the way in which selected scenes are reproduced in the case 202 shown in FIG. 2, when a conventional apparatus to reproduce AV data is used. Referring to FIG. 3, Scene #1, Scene #2, Scene #5, Scene #7, and Scene #9 selected as illustrated in FIG. 2 are reproduced in a new reproduction sequence. In the arrows shown in FIG. 3, patterns in the arrows represent types of data, musical notes represent musical audio data, and a volume symbol represents dialog audio data. In this case, the plurality of selected discontinuous scenes is reproduced in a sequence different than that of the basic story line of AV data. Thus, a scene change may lead to a rapid change in video data and audio data, thereby causing an unnatural scene change. Also, reproduction may be stopped during a scene change, since the distance of a jump of AV data that is to be read is sufficiently far enough that seamless and continuous reproduction of the selected AV data cannot be guaranteed.